This Abandoned Airstrip Atoll Is One Of The Most Remote Places In All Of Hawaii

As the most isolated population center on earth, the Hawaiian Islands consist of eight major islands, several small islets and numerous atolls extending approximately 1,500 miles. The majority of these islands are uninhabited and unnamed, or nearly impossible to gain access to — like the private island of Ni’ihau, which is owned by the Robinson family or Kaho’olawe, which was used as a military training ground during WWII and is littered with bomb fragments — but there’s one tiny atoll you might not know about that houses an abandoned airstrip and hundreds upon hundreds of seabirds.

Found way, way off the beaten path, approximately 490 miles west, northwest of Oahu, Tern Island measures in at just 26 acres in size.

After the 1942 Battle of Midway, the United States Navy built a naval air station on Tern Island, enlarging the island to support a 3,300 landing strip.

Construction entailed massive reshaping of the island, leaving it weirdly rectangular and flat.

The station’s main function was as an emergency landing site for planes flying between Midway Atoll and Hawaii.

Pictured here, circa 1953, is a United States Coast Guard PBY-5A at Tern Atoll.

The naval base operated from 1942 until 1946, when it was abandoned after a tidal wave.

Later, the United States Coast Guard set up a station here, which was in operation from 1952 to 1979. In 1962, a tsunami wiped out much of the station, and it needed to be rebuilt.

Today, the island serves as a breeding habitat to 18 species of seabirds, threatened Hawaiian green sea turtles and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

The atoll is maintained by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as a field station in the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

Seabirds abound on Tern Atoll, as evidenced by these images from Google Street view. They’re everywhere — on the sand, in the bushes, overhead, and floating just offshore.

The original runway, seawall, and some buildings remain, and the U.S. Coast Guard barracks continued to be used into the 21st century.

You never know what one might discover in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, but I think it's safe to say that Tern Atoll is easily one of the most fascinating.

Have you ever heard about Tern Island or seen these images from Google Street View? Which of Hawaii’s small, uninhabited islands is your favorite? Perhaps it’s Manana Island, a small island nestled off the coast of Oahu’s southwestern coast.